Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #114913
Title: DATA ACCURACY ISSUES IN SPATIALLY DISTRIBUTED SOIL EROSION MODELING: WHAT DOES DECISION-MAKING GAIN?

Author
item RENSCHLER, C - PURDUE UNIVERSITY
item Flanagan, Dennis
item ENGEL, B - PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: American Society of Agricultural Engineers
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/1/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Soil erosion modeling requires substantial and accurate data to obtain meaningful results for decision-making in soil and water conservation practices. Public agencies in the United States provide nationwide coverage of Digital Elevation Models (DEM) that are considered not sufficiently accurate in their topographical representation to be able to meaningfully apply detailed process-based soil erosion assessment tools at the field scale. Today's precision farming equipment based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) enable landowners to gather spatially distributed data that has the potential to be used in addition to common sources of topographical information. Difficulties, possibilities and requirements of a spatially distributed assessment approach with the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model supported by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are discussed from a decision-maker's perspective. This paper analyzes the impact of the accuracy of different topographical data sources on prediction of soil erosion rates using WEPP, with the aim to develop a user-friendly easily accessible assessment tool as practical support for decision- makers.